"Yes!" I heard you say.
"You would? Great! Aunt Brenda wants me to find three items needed to bake a chocolate cake. We need to go to three places, the grocery store, the baker's shop and the farm. Come on, let's go!"
"Come on, let's go, arukou, arukou!" my travelling song played.
I ran and Duke skipped, saying along the way, "Where are we going? The grocery store."
"Hey, have you guys seen the grocery store?" I asked, looking at the baby. So it seems that you have already a child, a child of ours.
"Where?"
"Behind you," you said, holding the baby's arm, pointing behind me.
"Where is the grocery store?"
"Behind you!"
"Behind me? Oh, there it is."
We entered the grocery store. "Good morning, Sonya. What would you like on this lovely day?"
"What do we need to bake a cake?"
"Flour? Toys? Or backpacks?" I said, pointing the selections that showed up in front of me.
"Flour? Toys? Or backpacks?"
"What? Flour? Yes! We need flour to make a cake."
"Flour, oh, flour!" Duke exclaimed, carrying the sack of flour, jumping around like a monkey.
"Next, where do we have to go?"
"I can't hear you."
"Da baka sta!" the baby said. I'm so proud of him and you!
"The baker store?"
"The baker store!"
"Come on, let's go!"
"Hey, it's Hector!" Duke warned.
"What do you want this time, Hector?"
"Hey, the flour bag's missing!"
"Hehehe, I've hidden the bag somewhere, somewhere you can't find it, haha!" he said, running away.
Ahh... Brings back memories. Whenever I faced any problems, you were there to help me. But now you're not here with me, but I don't mind. You shouldn't be here. I shouldn't even be here either.
"Do you see the bag?"
"The bag, the bag!"
"Where is it?"
"In the bushes!"
"Da bashas!"
"Where?"
"Da bashas!"
"It's in the bushes!" Duke cried out.
"Great! Now we can go on our journey."
Our journey... It happened so fast, "ended" so fast, like a dream. It was quite amazing, yes it was.
"Come on, let's go!"
"Come on, come on, let's go!"
"Hey honey, have you seen the flour?" I heard "myself" saying.
"It's in the storage room," you said.
"Starga ram!"
"Ok, honey."
You don't realize... You don't realize anything... Yet... What can I do to make you notice, what can I do to make you feel this?
Soon, Duke and I arrived at the baker's shop.
"What do we buy here?"
"Hello, Sonya."
"Hello, cashier."
"What should we buy? Cookie tray, cake mold, or a rolling pin?"
"Raa pain!"
"What?"
"No, the cake mold is the suitable thing for a cake."
"The cake mold?"
"Yes, the cake mold is the perfect tool."
"Next, where do we go?"
"Fart!"
"Fart?" You said as you burst into laughter. "No, not fart."
"No fart?"
"No, it's farm."
"Faram?"
"Close enough."
I also found it quite funny, our kid mispronouncing "farm" as "fart". But I can't laugh. I'm not allowed to, or I'll get "fired". They... They will surely put me down, get this show off the air. No, I must restrain myself, composure I must keep.
"Where do we go?"
"The farm?"
"Yes, the farm! Come on, let's go!"
It wasn't far from the baker's store, the farm ran by old Mac Donald. He had cows, geese, ducks, just like the song.
"Hey, if it isn't Sonya! Come on in!"
"Dear, you've grown so much, haven't you?" asked Mrs Mac Donald. She asks that every single time, like a scripted character. Boring, yet that's what I'd hear my aunties say every time I visited.
"So, I've heard you came for something, that right?"
"Yes!"
"What do you want then? We have cheese, eggs and bacon."
"Which of these do we need for a cake?"
"Cheese? Eggs? Or bacon?"
"Yes, eggs!"
"Eggs? Okay then, here's a dozen eggs. Do you want anything else?"
"No, thank you for the eggs!" I said, leaving the farm.
"Now, let's go back home so that we can bake the cake! Come on, let's go!"
"Do, do, do," we sang as we went.
After passing the baker's store and the grocery store, we soon arrived at Aunt Brenda's.
"Hey, Aunt Brenda, we have come!"
"Do you have the ingredients?"
"Yes!"
"Alright, now we can bake the cake!"
"Yeah!" Duke cheered.
Cake... That day, I had just finished baking a cake for our 1 month old son, and sat in front of the telly, watching an episode of Sonya the Adventurer with him. You were at work then, only me and him at home.
"Hello, it's me, Sonya, and this is my good friend, Duke. Would you like to go on an adventure with me?"
"Yes?" I said. I found it kind of funny that me, a grown woman would still answer a fictional character.
"Just say yes, with confidence!"
"Ya!" our son said.
"Yes!" so I said, following our baby.
"Alright then," Sonya said. "Brace yourself for your one trip journey."
"One trip?" I thought.
Suddenly, I found myself feeling dizzy. The whole world swirled around me and soon I found myself in an oddly colourful world. The sky was a bright shade of blue, clouds white, grass, a healthy shade of green wherever I looked.
"Hey." I heard me say. "Me? But... I'm here..." I thought.
"Here." 'I' called out again. I looked up and away, noticing the outside. I was stuck in the telly, it seemed.
"What?" I thought. "What happened to me?"
I looked around and found Duke, jumping in front of me. "Hi, Sonya!"
"Sonya?" I wondered. I looked around myself and surely enough, I was the titular character of the show.
"Hey Sonya," 'I' called out.
To my surprise, I automatically responded to that name, without any hesitation. "Yes?" Gasp, I even sounded like Sonya.
"You're the new me now, Sonya. Get used to my old life. Haha."
"You have to get me out of here!" I screamed in terror, terror of being a simple cartoon character.
"No. I'm not gonna let you escape. I can't even let you escape even if I wanted to. You've to choose your own victim, like I chose you. By the way, thanks for the body!" 'I' said, switching off the telly.
"Nooo!" I screamed. That was my doom. Where I saw 'me' and my baby, became pitch black. I cried. I cried for I knew I couldn't ever return. Never could I escape. This is my life as a cartoon character. Suddenly, I felt a tingling sensation. I felt tugged, tugged on by strings attached to me.
I looked behind me, a door appeared. I walked through, seeing the world from within the space we call Broadcast. From inside, I saw many children, many viewers watching me. I felt... Universal.
Everyone around the world, watching me. It was, surreal to say the least. I had never enjoyed so much attention before. The feelings overwhelmed me, and soon I felt myself splitting, many copies of myself, of my soul. All of them, all of us entertaining the viewers, the clients, the fans.
And it wasn't only telly. We reached the web, radio, CDs, even cassette tapes. We reached everywhere. I got the whole world in my hands. Every time I appear on telly, I get a chance to trade places with a viewer, I get their body, and they get mine. Although, my identity would change. But I don't want to, and I never want to. I don't want anyone else to suffer the same fate as me, including 'me'.
I'll be the last. The last Sonya. From then until forever.
So today I've returned, to the telly that started it all. I see you happy with our son, with 'me', and I'm thankful for that. Me, I've to go on my own journey, as Sonya the Adventurer.
Soon, the cake Aunt Brenda was finished. "Yay!" Duke exclaimed, hearing the oven ring.
"Let's taste the cake!" exclaimed Aunt Brenda.
"Thank you for helping us on our adventure today," I said. "We went to the grocery store, the baker's shop and the farm to get the ingredients to bake a cake!"
"Yeah! It's delicious!"
Soon, my outro song played. "Hot cake, hot cake, nice hot cake. It's been fun but it's time to go. Hot cake, hot cake yeah it's been fun, but bye, to Sonya the Adventurer."
"Thanks for stopping by."
And that was the end of the episode. I'm glad I could see you, you know. I missed you. So much. But don't worry, I'll get by on myself here. See you, my love.
Hello
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